Whew! I Saved Our Travel Memories (Including Our Visit Inside Buckingham Palace)

by joeheg

At the beginning of 2020, I shared some tips about what we could all do for the time before we’d all be able to travel freely again. One of my suggestions was to make sure your data was backed up. In fact, I was able to take advantage of that advice as our computer’s hard drive crashed not much later that year and I depended on backups to recover our photos.

My advice was based on a time when I forgot to back up our photos and I ended up losing almost a year’s worth of memories. Or so I thought.

When Sharon wrote about our Eurostar trip I knew we had pictures from that trip to London and Paris. I was able to find the email about our award flights on United from MCO-EWR-LGW and a return flight from CDG-IAH-MCO, which is my first experience that it’s not always the best option to book longer flights just to have a slightly more comfortable seat.

But while I had those memories, I had no pictures of the trip on my computer. It was a lost vacation. I chalked it up to my neglect of backing up pictures. However, I searched Sharon’s computer and found a backup of a backup folder containing the pictures from that trip. Thank goodness these pictures of Sharon on the Eurostar are preserved forever.

a woman sitting in a chair

Me (Sharon) in 2006, so excited to be on the Eurostar that I got my hair cut WAY too short, and then fell asleep from the exhaustion of it all

Yesterday’s events reminded me of something else that happened on that trip in 2006. We got to visit Buckingham Palace.

When doing research, I discovered that we’d be in London during the short period of each year when the palace rooms were open to guests. Even at that time, we weren’t ones to pass up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We found out how to reserve a time and booked a visit to one of “The Official Residences of The Queen.”

a person holding a ticket

There were no pictures allowed inside Buckingham Palace and guests, us included, obeyed those rules.

However, we did grab this picture of us on the back steps.

a couple of people standing on stairs in front of a building

While we’ve visited several “big, old, opulent houses” over our travels, Buckingham Palace felt different. It was alive, seemingly carrying the spirit of a country inside it. It felt similar to when I visited the White House back when I was in the Boy Scouts.

The term “living history” is thrown about but the feeling is real. Important people lived there and decisions that affect people around the world were/are made within these walls. There’s something to be said about walking on those same grounds. You’re in the “rooms where it happened.”

I remember that visit to this day, even if The Queen was not in residence at the time. One of my best memories was eating Buckingham Palace Fine Dairy Ice Cream while sitting on a bench overlooking the palace garden. That was great ice cream. The Queen must have had some happy cows.

Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.

Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!

This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

Cover Image by Pfüderi from Pixabay

Leave a Comment